Would you be interested in buying scrap from you competitor so that you can introduce it in your production process and save costs? Chances are high that you would stay away from such a deal because introducing poor quality material into your production process is only going to reduce the overall quality of your output.
Well, why is it that people are attracted towards a person with average performance and qualification just because he or she has worked with a competitor? Nobody is going to walk up and admit that he or she was fired for being a poor performer. Rather, people will come up with elaborate stories to prove how they were the wronged party.
You will end up disappointed if you believe all that is said without any verification.. This is not to say that you should completely avoid candidates who have worked with your competitors in the past. However, you should adopt a cautious approach and treat them as guilty until proven innocent before employing them. Use social networking web sites and other resources to find out why exactly did your competitor let the employee go.
If your research indicates that the employee has performed well and that your competitor is to blame, you can always proceed to finalize the recruitment. However, if you find that there are certain gray areas which have not been satisfactorily explained, you can proceed further but should be careful to ensure you do not waste time and effort employing a poor performer. You can proceed further with a longer probation which will help you judge performance better.